


Beat Your Heart Out

by unapologetic_thirst



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternative Universe - Punk Band, F/F, Genderswap, Homophobic Language, Smoking, Swearing, Tattoos, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-14
Updated: 2012-12-14
Packaged: 2017-11-21 02:13:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/592311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unapologetic_thirst/pseuds/unapologetic_thirst
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Genderswap AU where they’re in an all-girl punk band/babe crew and they wear a lot of leather and smoke a lot of cigarettes and make out with each other and beat people up when they try to hit on Harry, who looks like Brody Dalle from The Distillers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beat Your Heart Out

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from The Distillers song of the same name. Basically the entire Coral Fang album (and the lyrics especially) inspired this thing so if you want something to listen to while reading I recommend that. It's more angsty than I meant it to be, it was supposed to be like fuck yeah badassery and lipstick and leather and...idk some angst just found its way in somehow, whoops!

They're all standing around by the back door of the dive bar they just finished playing at, shining with sweat and still buzzing from the show.  

  
Zayn sits down on the curb and leans back, pulling out the cigarette she'd stashed behind her ear earlier. Niall lifts up her shirt to scrub the sweat from her cotton candy hair and kicks off her clunky doc martens before settling down behind Zayn to absent-mindedly braid her mohawk. She has a cigarette dangling from the corner of her mouth and she's chatting to Liam about the chest piece she's planning with her tattoo artist. Liam shrugs out of her worn leather jacket to show them the latest addition to her half-sleeve, done earlier that day, and pulls a tube of ointment out of the back pocket of her tight jeans to rub into it, wincing a little at the sting. They're all running out of room at this point, they'll start having to tattoo their intestines soon. 

  
Zayn's attention wanders over to where Louis has Harry pressed against the wall of the building, bright blue pixie cut catching the flickering light of the streetlamp overhead. They're alternating between lazily making out and trading sips of the shitty beer the bar provided as payment for their gig. They really need to start lining up better shows if they're going to make next month's rent  _and_ afford cigarettes for all five of them. 

  
Zayn stands up and tugs Niall with her, who plants a kiss on the crescent moon tattoo under Zayn's right eye before grabbing Liam's hand to help her up. Zayn whistles sharply and Louis and Harry break apart and amble towards them, pinkies linked and swinging idly. The five of them start packing their battered instruments into the back of their shitty van, and when they've finished, they plop back down onto the pavement, pulling out new cigarettes and lighting them with matching hot pink lighters. 

  
They pop open new bottles of beer before taking turns sucking fresh love bites onto each others' left collarbones. It's a thing they started when they first got together; none of them really remember how or why they started doing it, but now they feel wrong without their matching bruises. So they leave new marks for each other before the fading ones disappear and wear them like badges to show the world they belong to each other and no one else. 

  
Zayn pulls out a tube of blood red lipstick from where she'd tucked it into the collar of her boot earlier and swipes it over her lips before leaning over to Liam and kissing her firmly, staining her mouth too. She says it saves lipstick doing it that way, but really she just likes the way it makes Liam press her lips together afterwards, trying to spread the color evenly. She leans back and erases the stray smudges with her thumb, smiles lazily, and rests her head on Niall's shoulder. 

  
She looks over at Harry where she's sitting in Louis' lap, running her fingernails over the studs in her belt and biting down on the back end of the stud in her lip, twisting it with her tongue. It's a nervous habit she can't seem to get rid of. Louis watches the stud twist and pull tight against her skin and makes a noise like a discontented cat.   

  
Louis gets restless after shows, when her fingers are raw from her guitar and she's been watching the tendons in Harry's neck strain from yelling into the microphone. Zayn knows how this goes, and she gives Louis thirty seconds before she's dragging Harry into the back of the van. It doesn't even take ten before she's crawling in beside Niall's drum kit and pulling Harry in with her. Zayn watches as Harry lifts Louis' cut-off muscle tee to suck one pierced nipple into her mouth and Louis twists her fingers into Harry's mess of midnight blue curls, and then the three other girls scramble into the back of the van and close the doors behind them. 

 

 

+++

Their bathroom cabinet is full of half empty cans of hair spray and the counter is stained with dye: bubblegum pink from Niall and aquamarine from Louis and the darkest blue-black from Harry. Louis only lets Harry dye her hair. She says it's because she can never get the back herself and when Niall did it she missed spots and Zayn and Liam don't dye their hair so they're bound to fuck it up, but everyone knows it's because Louis noticed how Harry lit up when she asked her to do it the first time. 

 

While the dye is soaking in, Louis paints Harry's nails for her because she can never do the polish herself without smudging it and Louis always makes it look perfect. They're neon purple this week. Later on, when Louis is curled up with Liam on the couch and Zayn is reading and smoking on the porch, Niall notices how nice the purple looks running up the inside of her thighs. She'll have to remember to ask Harry to borrow that color when they're finished.

 

That night they decide to go to the bar around the corner because they want to get too drunk and not have to worry about driving. It's not their favorite place—too many college kids and the music on the jukebox is criminal, but the drinks are cheap and Louis doesn't want to have to walk too far in her stilettos. There's a group of guys playing pool in the corner who stop to leer drunkenly at them as they walk in. Liam tugs the girls past them and over to the bar. 

  
Too many whiskey sours later and Liam and Harry are making out sloppily on one wall and Louis is trying to convince Zayn that  _Frankenchrist_  is vastly underrated while Niall rolls her eyes and tells Louis she's fooling herself if she thinks anything after  _Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables_  is worth listening to. Liam breaks off from kissing Harry to say that she thought Jello Biafra's spoken word albums weren't half bad and is met with four identical looks of disapproval. 

  
Louis opens her mouth to tell Liam exactly how tragic that statement really was when she's cut off by one of the leering guys from earlier grabbing Harry's waist from behind. Harry shoots him a glare and scoots out of his grip, going to stand next to Niall. Zayn and Louis stalk forward in sync. They've worked out a system for situations like this. Louis takes the lead this time, spitting, "Fuck off, none of us are interested."

  
Louis is intimidating even when she's not trying to be, but now she's like ice and sharp steel, eyes narrowed and arms crossed. If he was any more sober he might have cottoned on to the warning in her tone, but he wasn't and he didn't. Instead, he pushes past Louis and back up to Harry, pulling on her arm and slurring, "Come on sweetheart, don't you want a real man to show you what you're missing?"

  
Zayn pushes him off Harry and into Louis, who shoves him against the wall and gets right in his face, hissing, "If you so much as look at any of us again tonight, I'll kick your fucking ass. Leave, now." Zayn is right behind her, cracking her knuckles. 

  
He scoffs and pushes Louis away from him, muttering "Fucking dykes." Louis' and Zayn's eyes harden and they exchange a quick glance and nod, and then Zayn headbutts him and he crumples to the floor, where Louis kicks the heel of her stiletto into his crotch. They turn and walk back to the others, their hands in the back pockets of each others' pants as he groans in pain behind them. 

  
Harry's eyes are dilated and her cheeks are flushed when they rejoin the group. She takes them both in to the bathroom and fingers Zayn while she eats Louis out on the counter. She has a thing for them getting protective over her. They're not complaining. 

 

 

+++

 

A few days later Harry comes out of her room looking upset and setting her jaw against tears that are threatening to spill over. She buries her head in Zayn's neck, and she won't say what's wrong but Zayn knows when she sees a crop of blue hair out of the corner of her eye and hears the front door slam that it was something to do with Louis. Of course. 

  
Harry hates crying because it makes her feel weak. She compensates by wearing her thickest leather jacket, the one with the spikes along the shoulder panel and the skull and crossbones patch on the back. She pulls harsh drags of her cigarette and lets Zayn stroke her hair while she bites down on the stud in her lip, twisting and twisting. She tugs Zayn off of the couch and out the door and Zayn knows already that they'll end up at the tattoo parlor.  

  
Whatever happened between them must've been bad this time, Zayn thinks. Usually when they fight Harry gets drunk and throws beer bottles off the roof or screams herself hoarse singing angry songs she wrote in the garage. She only gets tattooed when something big happens—she saves her largest pieces for when she's upset. This time she's getting a tattoo of a revolver on the inside of her forearm. The needle hums and she bites on her lips until they're chewed and raw-looking before Zayn sticks her fingers in Harry's mouth and lets her bite on them instead.

  
The tattoo is bandaged and they go home. Zayn lets Harry press close and she kisses Harry's bitten lips and fingers her in the hallway until she comes with a sob and lets Zayn carry her to bed. Zayn pretends not to notice that she's crying. The only thing Harry hates more than crying is letting other people see her cry.  

  
When Louis comes home around noon the next day she goes straight to Harry where she's standing in the kitchen with Zayn and sucks love bites into her neck and murmurs apologies low in her ear that only Harry can hear. Zayn sees Harry melt and she knows it's done. Harry can't stay mad at Louis even when she deserves it. Especially when she deserves it. Louis tugs Harry into the bedroom and shuts the door behind them. Zayn goes to find Niall so they can smoke a bowl and take turns with the strap-on she bought last week. 

 

 

+++

 

They play more shows, better ones, that put cash in their pockets instead of beer in their bellies. Liam cleans the house and they reward her with multiple orgasms. Niall decides she wants to learn Russian so they can do Cold War role-play and ignores Louis when she points out that there weren't many double agents with pink hair. Louis and Harry haven't really gone back to normal after their fight, which is a first. No one says anything about it. Zayn gets her septum pierced. 

  
Harry tells her she wants one too, so Zayn goes with her to the piercing place and holds Harry's hand while she's lying on the table. Zayn watches her thighs clench and her eyes water as the needle goes through her septum. She rubs her thumb along Harry's hip and sees goosebumps prickle along the trail she left. 

  
When Louis sees them come in with their matching piercings she rolls her eyes and grabs a beer and goes to sit on the porch to pout and smoke her way through a pack of feelings. Harry looks hurt and guilty and Zayn tells her to go find Liam while she deals with Louis. She goes out on the porch and pulls out a cigarette of her own and doesn't say anything for a while. When she's down to the filter she breaks the silence. 

"You can't keep doing this to her."

 

 

+++

 

 Harry never told Louis that the star tattoo she got is for her. She knows Louis would call her a sap and she's afraid the other girls would get jealous if they knew. But there was this one night back when they first met, it was just her and Louis, the other girls had gone out. They got drunk and drew stars on each other’s bodies while they sprawled naked in bed, smoking cigarettes and talking. She thinks Louis doesn’t remember, or at least doesn’t connect the small star on Harry’s bicep with that night. But sometimes Louis will bite it and cover it with kisses and she wonders if maybe Louis does know and doesn’t want to acknowledge it. 

  
Louis knows. Every time she sees the little star peeking out from under Harry's shirt she wants to run away and never leave at the same time. Because even though Louis is the toughest out of the group, the one no one wants to mess with, Harry scares her to death. She's wormed her way into Louis' insides somewhere secret and scary, with her smudged eyeliner and slim hips and raspy voice and it's terrifying. Louis hates being vulnerable even more than Harry hates crying. 

  
And Louis knows that even though it's the five of them forever, it's Harry who holds the biggest piece of her heart, even if sometimes she pretends like she doesn't have a heart at all. And every time Louis says something awful and Harry gets another tattoo she's reminded that she's going to have to tell her before Harry's body is filled with a different kind of ink, the kind that stains her heart and fingertips and drips with longing and self-doubt until she doesn't want to suffer for Louis anymore. 

 

So she ruffles her blue hair and plays with the stud in her tongue and tells herself it's happening today. She decides that if she's going to be the strongest and most brutal bitch around she can't be a coward too. So she goes to the tattoo parlor alone and gets a star tattooed on her bicep in the same place as Harry's. 

 

When she comes back, Zayn and Liam are watching a movie and Niall is reading her Russian textbook and they tell her Harry's napping in the bedroom. She crawls into bed next to Harry and wakes her up by running her fingers through her hair. Harry slowly blinks her eyes open and smiles up at her lazily. Her septum piercing is lopsided and Louis gently pushes it back into place. 

 

She presses a kiss to Harry's forehead and pulls the bandage off of her arm, showing her the matching star there. Harry starts biting and twisting at her lip stud again, nervously meeting Louis' eye.

 

Louis whispers, "It's always going to be you and me and the stars forever, okay?"

 

Harry's breath catches and she breathes a shaky "Okay" before Louis presses their lips and hips together. 


End file.
